41 Years of Friendship

Today marks the 41st anniversary of our friendship as the all males 6th batch of MRSM Kota Bharu. We called ourselves WATTOP. Long story but suffice to explain that it means attention seeking, sort of.

To commemorate the occasion, we had a thanks giving dinner in Shah Alam last night. It was organised in a very short notice but the participations were great. More than 20 of us  were there. Food was excellent.

As usual the conversation was around our friendship at the college. However, this time around, we spoke more about supporting each other into the future, the state of the country and life after retirement. A number of us consider themselves already retired although many more are still active, working or in business. Perhaps, this shows the stage of life we are in as we move slowly past the half-century mark. 

While we have gone separate ways in living our lives, having different views and opinions, such a gathering would always bind us together. The common background enables us to appreciate differences, some thing which is seriously lacking in the society at large although we are all Malaysians, to say the least.

We launched a fund to help each other in needs. Hopefully this will grow into something which is meaningful. Not all of us are as lucky as the rest. I suppose this will be the opportunity to bind us closer.

Being the alumni of the MRSM system, our achievements will be assessed based on how much we had given back to the country. How much have we lived with this responsibility? The investment made in nurturing us as well-educated Malaysians should inspire us to pay forward for the future on Malaysia.

I look forward to joining many more Wattop events.

Starting 2019 On Governance and Anti-Corruption Themes

So far I had been interviewed on television twice in 2019, both on the topics related to governance and anti-corruption.

The first interview was aired on 2 January on Astro Awani. I was invited to the programme "Let's Talk" hosted by Sharaad Kuttan. The other co-panellist was Dato' Sri Akhbar Satar, the chairman of Transparency International, Malaysia.

As Malaysians have high expectations on various reforms instituted post the 13th general election, the topic of governance and anti-corruption would be amongst the key indicators whether the new administration would be fulfilling their promises for a better Malaysia.

I stressed the points on the need for effective institutional reforms so that our key institutions such as police, anti-corruption commission and various other regulators remain independent and perform their duties without fear or favour. At the same time, the introduction of the political financing law, as promised, would require political parties to revamp their business models and be more transparent on how they are funded. I also suggested that financial reporting in public sector to be treated in similar manner with the private sector where senior public officials who cause financial statements of public institutions to be false or misleading to be fined and jailed.

A day later I appeared again with Dato Akhbar as well on a talk show "Ruang Bicara" on Bernama News Channel on similar topics. This time the programme was hosted by Sherkawi Jirim, someone whom I knew since small since he started an investigative reporting programme "Panorama" on RTM. It was very popular until, according to Sharkawi, the then power that be wanted it to be shelved.

The Malay-speaking programme allowed callers from all over the country to call in and shared their views on corruption. It appeared that the desire of Malaysians for corruption to be tackled seriously remained high.

While Dato' Sri Akhbar shared his ideas on how corruption should be addressed, I repeated by views on the need for institutional reform and the introduction of the political party financing law. I also explained how corruption resulted in the society to be deprived of funds for development and direct assistance to the poor and needy.

I am very happy that I am able to contribute, in my small way, to enhance governance in Malaysia so that government would be more responsible when spending the Rakyat's money. 

May 2019 be a year where more structural reforms are introduced to combat the evil of corruption and elevated our governance practices to the level where we would be proud of as Malaysians.

Link to my Let's Talk interview:

http://english.astroawani.com/malaysia-videos/lets-talk-sharaad-kuttan-episode-86-333513

Link to my Ruang Bicara interview:

https://www.facebook.com/BernamaNewsChannel/videos/226902408220544/UzpfSTYzMjM0NTQ0MDMwMTk4ODoxMDMzODE1OTcwMTU0OTMx/

Change Is Constant, How Do We Steer It To Our Favour?

New year is always associated with new resolutions, aims and goals. Nothing wrong with that. The world will continue to change whether we like it or not. The question is what do we don so that it revolves to our favour and we achieve all the goals which we target.

The change drivers may not be changing, Society, Economy, Technology, Environment and Politics, but the elements within those drivers could be changing as well. This requires us to know what the those elements which are changing before we develop our response or figuring out how to benefits from those changes.

The key word is we need to strategise and DO SOMETHING. While that sound very logical and many people do have ideas what to pursue, the challenge is whether we have the discipline to follow through and do what we plan to do.

To make it easier for us to act later, we should start by identifying the goals which we want to achieve. Then we should detail out the steps which are required.

If we back to the wisdom of Einstein "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results" then there should be new efforts in our "to-do list" for this year compared to the year before.

To accept the reality that what worked (or we thought worked) may not be working in the future is not easy. What more when those beliefs provide us with some advantages, for example false comfort. We may not realise that by holding to those beliefs we are left behind by people who are more open to review their thoughts and willing to take risks in doing things differently.

It would also be easier if we group these action plans into 4 categories:

1. What are the new things which we need to do?
2. What are the old things which we need to stop doing?
3. What are the old things which we need to do more?
4. What are the old things which we need to do less?

With such clarity, if would be easier to allocate resources and exert efforts in pursuing all the goals which we set. Otherwise, after a while, all the old habits will drag us back to doing the old stuff and steering us backwards.

The other part is about assessing progress. This is more difficult as we could be bias towards seeing things in a more favourable ways then accepting what our performance really is. Do we need someone external to judge us? Perhaps. If we are not honest ourselves, then we need someone honest to show whether we are progressing, not moving or even digressing!

It is not too late for me to wish all of you happy new year (there is another new year coming soon - the blessings of being in Malaysia) and I pray that all our goals would be achieved and we are able to steer the changes around us to our favour.